Three WWE stars die on tragic day

FORMER WWE stars Brian Christopher Lawler, who went by the name Grandmaster Sexay, Brickhouse Brown and Nikolai Volkoff have all died on a tragic day for wrestling fans.

Brian Christopher Lawler, the son of wrestling legend Jerry Lawler, died after attempting to hang himself in a Memphis prison.

The 46-year-old was found by guards and rushed to a local hospital where he was placed on life support but was declared dead soon afterwards.

Brian Christopher had been arrested in Tennessee earlier this month for DUI after allegedly leading cops on a chase. They tried to pull him over, but he continued driving. When he did stop, cops say, he smelled of alcohol.

Grandmaster Sexay was best known in WWE for being half the tag team Too Cool with Scotty 2 Hotty.

Pro wrestling Hall of Famer Volkoff, whose villainous Soviet ring persona made him a heel Cold War-era crowds loved to hate, died at the age of 70.

Volkoff - born Josip Nikolai Peruzović in the former Yugoslavia - rose to prominence in the ring during the 1980s, relentlessly taunting American audiences with his scarlet-and-gold outfits and Soviet flag-waving antics.

He also infamously tried to goad rowdy wrestling fans into singing along to the Soviet national anthem ahead of bouts, fuelling his enduring notoriety at the height of Cold War tensions.

"As one of the greatest villains sports-entertainment had ever seen, Volkoff's infamous rendition of the Soviet National Anthem before his matches made him an instant icon in the eyes of the WWE Universe as a Superstar they truly loved to hate," the WWE said in a statement.